This novel signals the coming of age of a major American writer.
Motherless Brooklyn is a bravura performance: funny, tense, touching, extravagant. Indeed, Brooklyn-with its charming folkways and language, its unique style of bad-guy swagger and sentimentality-becomes itself a major character. Not even The Human Freakshow.Īll of the Lethem touches that have thrilled critics are here-crackling dialogue, sly humor, dizzying plot twists-but they're secondary to wonderfully full, tragic, funny characterizations, and a dazzling evocation of place. No one-not Frank, not Frank's bitter wife, Julia, not the other Minna Men-is who they seem. Then one dreadful night, Frank is knifed and thrown into a Dumpster, and Lionel must become a real detective.Īs Lionel struggles to find Frank's killer-without letting his Tourette's get in the way-he's forced to delve into the complex, shadowy web of relationships, threats, and favors that make up the Brooklyn world he thought he knew so well. The four grow up to be the Minna Men, a fly-by-night detective agency-cum-limo service, and their days and nights revolve around Frank, the prince of Brooklyn, who glides through life on street smarts, attitude, and secret knowledge. A local tough guy and fixer, Minna shows up to take Lionel and three of his fellow orphans on mysterious errands: they empty a store of stereos as the owner watches destroy a small amusement park visit old Italian men. The Human Freakshow, a victim of Tourette's syndrome (an uncontrollable urge to shout out nonsense, touch every surface in reach, rearrange objects), Frank Minna is a savior. Lionel is an orphan who has Tourette’s syndrome, a neurological disorder characterized by compulsive, repetitive physical movements and verbal vocalizations called tics.
Vincent's Home for Boys, Brooklyn, early 1970s. Lionel Essrog is the protagonist and narrator of Motherless Brooklyn. Soon to be a major film directede by Edward Norton and starring Bruce Willis.
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